When it comes to teaching, I’ve got the 24 Italian Songs and Arias down, but there are quite a few out of the Anthology of Italian Song of the 17th & 18th Centuries that I’m not as familiar with. Playing them through at the piano is one thing, but hearing is quite another. “Italian Thursday” will be heavily weighted toward exploring this volume in the coming weeks.

Bononcini’s Hide from me no more has both a grace and a playfulness to it. Dame Janet Baker’s is on the graceful side, while this unknown recording on YouTube tends toward the playful. The music, with its running notes at the end of phrases, seems to suggest the “sorrow” the singer mentions isn’t terribly serious.

Hide yourself from me no longer,
Elusive light* of my sun.
By revealing yourself, if you please,
You could bring this soul out of sorrow.

*The Italian word luci also is often used to denote eyes, the eyes being the windows into or the “light” of the soul. The text has the dual meaning of addressing the sun, but also the eyes of the beloved.